Also known as the Sweet or Plume clematis, this flowers before C. paniculata but looks somewhat similar. It is considered a zone 6 plant though it has flowered here. It is a very vigorous grower, mantling itself with small white flowers smelling of vanilla–Donald McDonald calls its perfume “the most spiritual, impalpable and yet far-spreading of all vegetable odours”. The feathery, silvery seed-heads are decorative after the flowers have passed.